Commonly assigned U.S. application Ser. No. 317,222, filed Nov. 2, 1981, contains related subject matter.
The present invention relates to the manufacture of tags and labels, and more particularly to the production of the tags and labels of types which are difficult to counterfeit. The invention additionally relates to the secure recording of information in such tags and labels.
It is desirable in many commercial applications to employ tags or labels which are unique and which resist illicit duplication. It is well known in many industries that so-called "pirates" will simulate a product using inferior materials and production techniques, and will sell these products at a reduced price.
Typically, the pirate will mimic the packaging and labelling of goods in order to "pass off" his goods as the product of a well established enterprise. It is therefore desirable to provide tags and labels of a design which may not be easily duplicated, or which if duplicated may be easily detected as fraudulent.
The banking industry has fostered many efforts to design commercial paper of a type which will frustrate attempts to alter the paper after inscription with dollar amounts and other information; this is commonly known in the trade as "safety paper". Representative patents disclosing such safety paper include U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,564,724; 2,030,351; 2,232,424; 2,048,780; and 2,804,821. The product designs and manufacturing techniques disclosed in these references are unsuitable in the present context, in that they are not designed to prevent the counterfeiting of documents but rather the alteration of previously inscribed documents. Furthermore, these techniques are incompatible with the properties of metallized tags, labels, and the like.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,001,886 and 4,299,637 disclose designs for information-containing substrates which protect the information with an opaque layer to frustrate untimely or undetected revelation of the information. Unlike the laminates of the present invention the prior art substrates are not intended to provide visibly inscribed information and as such are unsuitable for tags and labels.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the invention to provide tags and labels of a sort which are difficult to duplicate. A related object is the design of tags and labels of this type which incorporate unique product identification information. Another related object of the invention is the use of a tag and label manufacturing technique which is beyond the resources of typical "pirates".
A further object of the invention is the achievement of a pleasing appearance in such tags and labels. It is a related object to provide a versatile range of tag and label formats.
Still another object of the invention is the secure encoding of information in such tags and labels. As a related matter it is desirable to provide dual levels of recording information, one visible and another requiring special detection apparatus.